When we think of Los Angeles, we often picture seemingly endless sunny skies, postmodern downtown skyscrapers, Hollywood, and beachy enclaves like Venice. But there’s also a mysterious, lurking side of Los Angeles popularized by legendary gangsters like Mickey Cohen and the hardboiled novels of Raymond Chandler, published between the 1930s and 1950s.

For Emmy award-winning director and photographer Daniel Sackheim, this gritty, shadowy underbelly lends itself to a series of bold black-and-white photos that highlight the noir valence of this iconic hub. His forthcoming book, The City Unseen, leans into L.A.’s dualities, focusing on historic buildings, trains, and individuals walking through urban spaces.

Often silhouetted in patches of sunlight, Sackheim’s dramatically cinematic effects of deep shadows and crisp highlights suggest a kind of timelessness. Even the daytime shots feel eerily as if they could be shot during a full moon or amid uncanny artificial light. In a city that is both contemporary and steeped in history, “Sackheim’s journey through these urban spaces is a testament to the paradox of the night, where stillness and trepidation walk hand in hand,” says a statement.

Sackheim is curating an exhibition alongside photographer Julia Dean for Ren Gallery, which is slated to open in May. The City Unseen is scheduled for release on May 12. Find your copy from Hat & Beard Press, and see more of Sackheim’s work on Instagram.

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When we visit major hubs like Copenhagen or Paris, we often take a lot of photos and make sure to grab a little souvenir as a memento of our visit. How better to remember the architecture and the feel of the city? Well, fiber designer Jake Henzler, a.k.a. Boy Knits World, figures you can stitch those memories into something much cozier than a postcard or a keychain.

Forthcoming from David & Charles Publishing, Henzler’s book Knit the City highlights buildings around the world through a series of building block-like patterns. Using a modular system, details like gables and windows can be switched up to create your own unique facades. Then it’s up to you to choose the colors you’d like to use. The blocks can then be stitched together to create a blanket, pillow covers, or any other application you can come up with.

Knit the City is slated for release on May 5. Pre-order your copy in the Colossal Shop. You can also find Henzler’s patterns on Ravelry.

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As with most conversations about money, understanding how artists fund their practices and lives is rarely discussed and always of intrigue. Mason Currey dives into this underexplored topic in his new book Making Art and Making a Living: Adventures in Funding a Creative Life.

Currey is known for documenting the day-to-day routines of hundreds of artists, writers, filmmakers, designers, musicians, and more. Making Art and Making a Living is in the same vein, revealing how family money, day jobs, schemes, and more have buoyed artists through the ages.

​In partnership with EXPO Chicago and the Chicago Athletic Association, we’re thrilled to celebrate the launch of Currey’s new book. Join us on April 8 for a discussion and signing by the author. Tickets include a hardcover copy, and Colossal Members receive $10 off with the code in their account.

Find Making Art and Making a Living in the Colossal Shop, and register for the event to save your seat.

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At Windsor Castle, a one-of-a-kind architectural marvel isn’t a structural part of the building itself or even a full-size feature. Here, you’ll find Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House, widely regarded as the largest and most famous in the world. Designed by architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, the house was built between 1921 and 1924 and contains items and furnishings conceived of by hundreds of the leading craftspeople and artisans of the day.

Queen Mary, consort to King George V between 1910 and 1936, was an enthusiast of all things miniature. Her dolls’ house even contains scale versions of nearly 600 real books in its library, including works by literary giants like A.A. Milne and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Commissioned from publishers around the U.K. and farther afield, many of these books are also held in the collections of the V&A, where they have been on long-term loan since 1916.

A recent video produced by the museum glimpses some of these tiny treasures with the expert guidance of National Art Library Assistant Librarian Amy McMullan and Catherine Yvard, Curator of National Art Library Collections. Examples include a red leather-bound Bible published in 1896 by Glasgow-based David Bryce & Son, in addition to a Quran, a collection of poems by Robert Burns, and more.

The National Art Library is housed within the V&A, and more than a million publications related to art, design, and performance comprise an archive that spans the 8th century to today.

Many more miniature books comprise the museum’s holdings, in addition to Queen Mary’s collection. Little almanacs in their embellished folios were published annually and included notable dates, such as sunrises and sunset times, holidays, and other practical information. Many of the titles sport gilt edges, marbled papers, and even metal cases that double as lockets so that they could be worn.

The collection includes diminutive dictionaries, a souvenir of The Great Exhibition of 1851 in Hyde Park, and children’s books—including a number of tunnel books, or paper peep-shows. These accordion-style tomes look at first glance like any other publication, but they expand into long tunnels through which viewers can take in a layered, dimensional scene.

The oldest object in the V&A’s collection is an early 1700s silver-bound miniature prayerbook in French that’s embellished with the semi-precious stone lapis lazuli. And the tiniest is fittingly called The Smallest Book in the World, published in 2002 and measuring 2.4 by 2.9 millimeters. It was designed by a German typographer and is so tiny that it’s accompanied by a small pamphlet showing what you would see if you could page through the book. As McMullen explains, the physical size of the book begs an interesting question: “Is it really a book if you can’t read it?”

Visitors are welcome to peruse the online catalogue and interact with items in the collection in person in the V&A East Storehouse’s reading rooms. Explore more on the museum’s YouTube channel.

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Before digital fonts and the ability to reproduce graphics on a large scale, there were sign painters. Today, printers can spit out countless posters and ads, but there was a time when hand-painted promotional signage was needed for retail windows, and business names were often rendered just the same. Of course, it’s a trade that virtually died out with the advent of new technologies, which made it cheaper and faster to produce public messaging. In the way of LPs and film cameras, though, just because there were new methods in daily use, it certainly doesn’t mean that the art form doesn’t live on.

A new book published by Letterform Archive, Lettres Décoratives: A Century of French Sign Painters’ Alphabets, celebrates the vivacity and timelessness of French sign painting from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Compiled from lithograph portfolios, which range from 1875 to around 1932, the volume includes more than 150 full-color reproductions of these bold lettering samples. These portfolios once served as catalogue-like albums, providing inspiration for styles and motifs that could be translated onto large billboards and small signage alike.

While decorative painting had been around long before embellished lettering came into vogue, it took a while to catch on. “Only in the nineteenth century did painters make alphabets into primary decorative elements,” writes sign painter Morgane Côme in the introduction. “Indeed even then, many of the letters painted on signboards, canvas awnings, and vehicles remained simple in form, following inherited models of Roman square capitals and modern variants used in printing type. The new demand for eye-catching signs called for significant change in perspective.”

Explore more in your own copy, which you can grab from the Colossal Shop.

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What began as a pile of dirt, rubble, and cement in rural Niland, California, just east of the Salton Sea, eventually became one of the most beloved landmarks and roadside attractions in the region. “Salvation Mountain,” Leonard Knight’s vibrantly painted, three-story mound made of adobe and straw, stands as a tribute to one man’s tenacity and desire to spread a message, topped with its instantly recognizable slogan, “God Is Love.”

“Salvation Mountain” is just one of countless artist environments around the U.S., illustrating the unique style, drive, and vernacular of creative builders. Often driven by religious or spiritual fervor, these self-taught artists use whatever materials are at hand, from salvaged metal and concrete to rocks, shells, glass, and more. Northern Wisconsin artist Fred Smith, for example, built a sprawling “Wisconsin Concrete Garden” that’s populated by figures and animals embellished with fragments of beer bottles and other found objects. And Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens are a visual cacophony of mosaics, passageways, arches, and niches made from a huge array of materials and knick-knacks.

A new book forthcoming from Tra Publishing titled Architectural Fantasies: Artist-Built Environments chronicles some of the most enduring examples of these vernacular treasures—even if they only now exist in photographs. The vibrant volume is authored by Jo Farb Hernández, Director Emerita of SPACES (Saving and Preserving Arts and Cultural Environments), whose work revolves around documenting and preserving one-of-a-kind, artist-constructed places.

Gathering decades’ worth of research and documentation, the book includes spectacular photographs by Fred Scruton and highlights the remarkable diversity of hand-built environments. Free from academic or architectural conventions, these buildings range from castle-like houses to folk art churches to intergalactic time travel machines—think Dr. Evermore’s Forevertron.

Thanks to enthusiasts and curators like Hernández who shine a light on these idiosyncratic creations, many have been carefully documented, catalogued, and conserved. Some have also been removed—at least in part—to museums, such as the John Michael Kohler Art Center’s Art Preserve in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Many have been dismantled, typically after the owner-artist died or the family moved on from the property, while others are lovingly maintained and open to the public.

Often categorized as “outsider art,” which describes work made by people who are self-taught and encompasses much folk art, artist environments are truly their own genre. And Hernández has long criticized the label. Its implication that the work is less significant or worthy of study when compared to other “high” forms of art, such as academic painting and sculpture, disregards that its makers improvise and play by their own rules—and do so extremely independently.

Hernández champions these individualistic works as monumental exemplars of the vast potential and wonderful weirdness of the human imagination. She says, “It is noteworthy how widespread stellar examples of this work are, and how, one by one, they push the envelope of the stale and rather archaic boundaries of the art historical canon.”

Architectural Fantasies is slated for release on April 14, and you can pre-order your copy in the Colossal Shop. You might also enjoy exploring artist environments that are part of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios program. And visit Ricky Boscarino’s whimsical, hand-built home in the short documentary “Electric Garden.”

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From his monumental, meditative installation of 100 million hand-painted porcelain sunflower seeds on the floor of Turbine Hall at Tate Modern to architectural columns wrapped in 14,000 salvaged life vests worn by refugees, artist-activist Ai Weiwei has long tapped into the power of scale, repetition, and symbols to plumb cultural heritage and expose societal issues.

Ai is known for his wide-ranging practice that encompasses large-scale installations, video, architecture, photography, public art, and more. This spring, TASCHEN releases a fully revised monograph titled Ai Weiwei. Updated Edition, building upon the initial volume published a decade ago.

Originally published right after Ai left China, unsure if he’d ever be able to return due to the country’s hostility toward his critical practice, this new volume happens to coincide with the artist’s first trip home after 10 years away.

The new edition chronicles the Chinese artist’s global practice, from his time spent in New York City in the 1980s to his well-known multimedia Zodiac series to recent, architectonic LEGO compositions.

Ai Weiwei. Updated Edition is slated for release next month. Pre-order your copy on Bookshop.

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From Do Ho Suh’s ethereal architecture to Kimsooja’s irridescent mirrors to Lauren Halsey’s fringed tapestry, a new book from Monacelli celebrates a broad spectrum of light and color. Rainbow Dreams features more than 200 installations, sculptures, paintings, photographs, and more that revel in the possibilities of pigment. Bound in a smooth gradient that extends to the pages’ edges, this vivid survey is a celebratory, playful object in itself.

Rainbow Dreams features numerous artists previously featured on Colossal, from Nina Chanel Abney and Nick Cave to DRIFT and Katharina Grosse, among many others. The book is slated for release on April 8, and you can pre-order your copy in the Colossal Shop.

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In the Bayan-Ölgii province of western Mongolia, Kazakh Mongolians are the largest ethnic group. The sparsely populated nation abuts the Altai Mountains, some of which belong to Russia and China and across which sits Kazakhstan. Over the past several decades, migration between Kazakhstan and Mongolia has increased due to changing political climates, trade, and tourism.

For Welsh photojournalist Claire Thomas, this northern region’s unique nomadic culture proved to be a veritable wellspring of astonishing encounters as she observed its 21st-century adaptations.

Forthcoming from Hemeria, Altai: Hunters and Herders of Mongolia is a trove of intimate photographs chronicling Thomas’ immersion in this part of the world. She captures indelible features of the Kazakhs’ nomadic lifeway, experiencing everyday life in yurt-like homes called gers and participating in pastoral practices amid a vast grassland steppe, framed by rugged peaks.

“Horses, once ridden by Mongolian warriors across frontiers and battlefields in the time of Genghis Khan, are now anchors of nomadic life: bred for durability, agility, and a capacity to withstand the most freezing of temperatures as they transport households between seasonal pastures and help herd livestock,” says a statement.

Horses are also an inextricable element in the Kazakhs’ renowned method of hunting with golden eagles. The enormous avians and their caretakers forge a deep bond, continuing a centuries-old practice that’s deeply embedded with spiritual significance in order to catch foxes, hares, and other mammals for food and fur. In Altai, Thomas celebrates this time-honored custom, drawing our attention to an increasingly rare way of life that is inseparable from the land, where balance, compassion, and community are all-abiding.

Pre-order your copy on the publisher’s website.

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A photojournalist for the Icelandic daily newspaper Morgunblaðið for 44 years, Ragnar Axelsson is attuned to capturing the moments that tell a story. Mundane activities, impending tragedies, and tender connections between people and animals all figure prominently in his work and offer a portrait of life that comes from being embedded within a community.

Axelsson’s book, Where the World is Melting, applies this journalistic rigor and sensibility to a personal project documenting the indelible impacts of a warming planet from Greenland to Siberia. In grainy black and white, snow-covered tundras and misty shorelines strikingly glimpse an environment in flux. One image in particular reveals a cloud of steam emanating from the melting Kötlujökull glacier in Iceland.

Where the World is Melting focuses on the aging farmers, sled teams, and Indigenous populations all grappling with both drastic changes to their homelands and the traditions they’ve practiced for generations. “What does the future hold for the reindeer herders living in the tundra? Nobody really knows,” Axelsson tells Blind. “A photograph is only a small piece in the jigsaw that makes up the big picture, but sometimes it is these small pieces that open our eyes to the broader reality.”

Available through Kehrer Verlag, Where the World is Melting accompanies an exhibition of Axelsson’s photos on view through May 2026 at the Ernst Leitz Museum in Wetzlar, Germany. Find more of his work on Instagram.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article ‘Where the World is Melting’ Documents Communities Amid Indelible Changes in the Arctic appeared first on Colossal.